Tattoo
by Ninxa Ra'wen
Summary: A very short little fic about an amusing day in the life of the ronins. Couldn't get this story out of my head, so I decided to write it down! Please rr!


Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I am poor...

Tattoo

"Ugh…" Ryo sat down heavily on the thin wooden bench in between the rows of lockers in the guys' locker room. Soccer practice was getting longer and longer, or so it seemed. Using his teeth to unceremoniously rip the clear tape, Ryo fastened a bag of ice to his knee with a finesse that only came with unwanted experience.

_This is getting really annoying…_ Ryo thought. It occurred to him that few people in this world might view pain and injury as a mere annoyance, but he had become so used to it by now that he refused to give it any more significance or attention than was necessary.

_God, if Cye only knew about this…_ he had managed to keep his knee troubles a secret for quite some time, but his first year of University soccer was quickly putting him over the edge. Cye would be touchingly concerned for his condition, but Sage on the other hand; Ryo grimaced as he imagined the disapproving look his dutiful friend seemed to save only for him.

_One of these days, this knee is going to give out under the weight of my armor, and then what am I gonna do?_ Ryo stared down at the offending knee, his left, angrily. He knew his duty, but giving up soccer? Now was that really necessary?

Ryo smirked _Not necessary now, at least not until Sage or Cye catches sight of me with this ice…_

Ryo got up to throw away the extra tape and then, unable to bend his knee because of the ice, he began to make his way awkwardly over to his locker to gather up his things.

The crowd that blocked his way to his locker was, needless to say, a bit unusual. The entire team seemed to be gathered around one guy, gawking and gossiping like little schoolgirls…

"Holy crap, is it real?"

"Of course it's real, you idiot, can't you see the red skin?"

"Did it hurt?"

"What is it?"

"What does it mean?"

Catching an idea of what was going on, Ryo craned his neck to see to the center of the gathering where he recognized their goalie, Skye Lin and caught a glimpse of the tattoo located on the back of his right shoulder. It was a circle, enclosing four almost squares that combined to form a four-pointed star with an x in the middle.

_I don't believe it…_

"Skye, what is that?" Ryo asked, trying not to sound too interested.

"Well, shut up everybody and I'll tell you!" a few more of the guys stopped yelling. "It's a symbol that I found in this really old scroll that my grandpa had. You see, there's this legend that these five warriors will receive these magical armors that draw their power from the elements and they'll basically save us all when the apocalypse comes. Cool, huh?"

All the guys on the team exclaimed their enthusiastic agreement while Ryo tried to decide if he was feeling threatened or amused.

"And that symbol has something to do with the legend?" another player asked.

"Yeah," Skye said, "this is the symbol for 'rekka', that's the fire warrior. I was gonna get the symbols for all the warriors, but I decided to get this one 'cause the fire guy is way cooler than the other ones. I mean, he's supposed to be the leader, and he gets this totally awesome super armor that combines the powers of all five. And he's like, all virtuous and fighting for righteousness and stuff. With this tattoo, I'll always be reminded of the legend and be able to live like the rekka warrior."

There was a general exclamation of "Whoa, cool…" during which Ryo tried to keep himself from bursting out laughing.

"I kid you not, the guy had a tattoo of the rekka symbol!" Ryo exclaimed to a disbelieving household after dinner, "It was hilarious, he was going on and on about this legend and the apocalypse and virtuousness and how he would be able to emulate the 'wildfire warrior' and stuff, it was hilarious!"

"I can't believe this guy has a tattoo of your armor…that's ridiculous…" Cye said, "_You_ don't even have a tattoo of your armor…"

"I know!" Ryo exclaimed.

"Why the wildfire armor?" Kento asked, "Why not all of them?"

"Well, um, I don't know…" Ryo lied, not wanting to go into detail.

"Maybe he's going to get the rest later…" Kento said to himself as he wandered away with a snack in his hand.

"Does it really matter?" Sage asked, lowering his history book long enough to fix Kento with a stare that clearly showed his annoyance with the entire subject.

"That's really funny, Ryo," Rowan said, reentering the room from the kitchen, "You're like, a ninja turtle or something."

"What?" Ryo was thoroughly confused, but Rowan was gone up to his room before he could explain.

"You heard him." Sage said smugly as he gathered up his things to go study in his room as well, "you're a ninja turtle."

Ryo was left alone in the dining room, contemplating any possible connection between his tattoo story and the reptilian super heroes.

"And take it easy on that knee." Echoed down the stairs.

It was three days later, on Saturday morning, before the tattoo was mentioned again. Everyone in the house had completely forgotten the incident, recognizing it as an amusing twist in their relationship with their classmates at school, but nothing more. Well, almost everyone, that is.

Cye, Kento and Rowan were sitting at the table, Kento eating breakfast quietly, for once, while Cye and Rowan read different sections of the newspaper.

"You know," Kento said thoughtfully, abrubptly breaking the silence, "I think I've come up with a solution to this whole 'wildfire tattoo' dilemma."

"Dilemma?" Rowan said, interestedly, "I didn't realize it was a dilemma."

"Think about it man! Ryo's totally beating us! We gotta do some PR! Get our names out there!"

"What the hell are you talking about Kento?"

"I'm talking about my idea, Cye! It's genius!"

"Well?"

"I'm gonna get a kongo tattoo!"

"What!" Rowan and Cye exclaimed together.

"Yeah! It's gonna be freakin huge! And then everybody will copy me, and kongo will be the coolest armor!"

There was silence for a few minutes and then Cye spoke up: "Kento, um, in order for everybody to copy you, they have to all like you…"

"What are you talking about? I'm way popular! Everybody likes me!"

"Well, I don't like you." Rowan said from behindhis newspaper.

"Yeah, I don't like you either." Cye said.

"Hey, Ryo!" Kento called into the kitchen, where Ryo was getting some water after his morning run.

"Yeah?"

"Do you like me?"

"Do I like you?" Ryo asked, walking up to the doorjamb in between the kitchen and the dining room.

"Yeah."

Ryo seemed to think on this for a second, taking a swig from his water bottle before simply stating "No." and walking off to take a shower.

"Looks like your master plan isn't doing too well so far." Sage said as he walked through the dining room. "Some ninja turtle you'd make."

And a deflated and confused Kento was left to grumpily munch on the remains of his breakfast.

Ninxa: Hey everybody! This was just a little story that I couldn't get out of my head, so I decided to write it down. Hope you enjoyed! I know it's short, but it was fun, so please review! Constructive criticism and ego stroking are both very welcome!


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